Editorial: Majority leader creates impasse

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 11:20 a.m.

The Senate should be debating the merits of health care reform legislation, but Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is causing an unwarranted legislative standstill. Lott wants to limit debate and amendments on the legislation, but Democrats correctly have denounced the plan and refused to go along, creating a stalemate.

Senators should be offered the chance for a full and robust debate on reforming health care, but don't count on it anytime soon. If Lott gets his way, and it sure looks right now as though he will, it might not be until September before this legislation is even considered by the Senate.

You've got to give Lott his due: He's quite effective at bottling up or killing legislation that would improve the quality of life in this country. Lott played a key role in defeating legislation aimed at curbing teen smoking. His delaying tactics allowed enough time for the tobacco lobby to launch its media blitz to help derail the common sense bill authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

This time his obstructionist act is directed at legislation that would guarantee patients of health plans a right to decent care, including the right to sue a health plan for punitive damages if the patient is harmed. The Senate Republicans have countered with a much more limited plan, one that Democrats refer to appropriately as a "fig leaf." Yet neither side's plan alone appears to have enough votes for passage.

Meanwhile, some Republicans and Democrats have tried to forge a compromise. But the plan falls short of offering the needed protection for patients. The compromise would allow patients to sue their health plans, but only to recover the cost of the denied treatment and any economic losses, such as time absent from work. Unfortunately this plan doesn't allow lawsuits for pain and suffering, which the Democrat plan does.

While the latest offering has some shortcomings, at least these senators are trying to work together, which is more than can be said about Lott. His Republican colleagues should remind him that if he refuses to seriously address health care reform, as he did with the tobacco legislation, the public will judge this as a "do-nothing" Congress.